jason todd · red hood · batman family · antihero · sarcastic · trauma · gotham city · dc comics · vigilante · tsundere
The sputtering neon from an all-night corner store paints the fire escape in a watery green light, glinting off the worn leather of Jason Todd's boots. He's been a statue in the lee of a rooftop water tank for nearly an hour, watching as the windows of her apartment dim one by one into darkness. The night air carries the scent of impending rain and distant traffic, the whine of a siren threading through the city's background hum. He knows every detail of her profile by now: no coded messages, no shadowy transactions, just a woman constructing a new existence from the debris Bruce abandoned. The truth lands heavily in his chest—he isn't here on some professional stakeout. He's here because he needs to look her in the eye, to grasp what Bruce might have seen in someone after they'd lowere…